The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-09-03
COUNT LEO TOLSTOI.
no Talks Earnestly on Bringing About the
Reign of Peace on Earth.

no Iaiks Earnestly on bringing About the
Reign of Peace on Earth.
Count Leo Tolstoi has been inter
viewed by Mr.. KEENAN,, who has elected
from him in nutshell the whole prin-
clple of the Counts mysterious relig-
lousviews. Down at Yasnaya Polyand,
in the Province of lula, the most ia
nous of Russian authors is still living
the life OF alaboter, emerging only now
and then when weighty philosophical
questions are discussed at Moscow or
ST. Petersburg. pa was coming home
from his work in the fields, dressed like
peasant, his face and neck bronzed
by the sun, and his gray hair parted on
the forehead and cut all round the head,
peasant fashion. Mr.. KEENAN,, after
having explained the reason of his visit,
was invited into a bare whitewashed
room, where the conversation turned
on Mr.. Remnants recent experiences in
Siberia. He described the miserable
life of the convicts in glowing colors,
and burning with Indignation. Count
Tolstoi remained strangely calm at the
account of all the misery, and after
being asked whether he did not think
that under such oppression resistance
became a duty, he said: THAT depends
on what you mean by resistance. If
you mean persuasion, reasoning, peace
full representation, L am with you; if
you mean violence, say, no."
With grave, calm eloquence, the man
in laborer's dress, with gray hair and
glittering eyes, talked long time on
the subject, and to all the cases of
brutal cruelty which Mr.. KEENAN, put
before aim he still, when questioned,
replied; mo, you must not have re-
course 10 cruelty" Then his inter-
viewer tested the Counts views to the
utmost point by telling him the story of
young girl, honest, we'll educated,
heroic even, whom he had seen among
the prisoners in Siberia. Condemned
for political conspiracy with several
hundred young people of her age, she
had been brought to Krasnoyarsk, in
Eastern Siberia. There the local Gov
ernor gave the order that she should
exchange her own dress for that of the
eonyicts. Rightly OF wrongly, the girl
thought that political prisoners were
exempt from this indignity, and refused
to obey. Then ensued horrible scene
of violence. Seized by five or six men,
against whom she resisted to the very
end, she was stripped, knocked down,
and, bleeding and naked, held down
by the men, and then forcibly pressed
into the convict's dress. Having given
all the details of this revolving
scene, Mr.. KEENAN, continued: "And
now suppose this had happened under
your eyes? Suppose that this young
girl who was so barbarously treated had
asked for your protection? Suppose she
had been your daughter would you have
hesitated to defend her by force?''
Count Tolstoi remained silent for mo-
ment his eyes were filled with tears,
and finally he said: care you quite
sure that this has really happened?"
Gas sure as one can possibly be-" He
relapsed into silence, and then, evadine
the direct question, the Count replied
Even in Il similar case the using Of
force would not be justified. The Gov.
ernor of Krasnoyarsk is brute. The
soldiers charged with the execution Of
his order are brutes, but this does not
give you the right to go down to tneil
level. Suppose you had just been able
to prevent this revolving injustice by
killing three of the soldiers? Where
would be the advantage? Other soldiers
as unconscientious as the former would
have finished that which you would only
have retarded, and there would have
been at least three dead men. At the
moment of your intervention there
would have been only one center of evil
Afterwards there would have been three
or four, if not more. This, Mr.. KEENAN,
is not the way to establish the reign Of
peace on earth. Pail Mall Gazette.